A blog about getting outside

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My blog has just turned one year old! On 5th February 2017, I published my first post. It was about our first proper walk of 2017 – a stroll up Shutlingsloe with the help of some jelly babies. We didn’t make it. Arriving at a wall with a step stile covered in ice, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the car. Shutlingsloe would be there for another day. That day arrived a couple of weeks ago.

It’s no secret that I love maps. Recently, I have been finding places to visit by simply browsing OS Maps online. One place I discovered this way was Turton and Entwistle Reservoir, so when I begrudgingly had to postpone a planned solo walk in the Lake District due to a forecast of high winds, I knew exactly where we would go as a family instead.

This September, Rowan started school. Despite being really exciting times for all of us, in all honesty, I also felt quite aggrieved. No longer could I just take a day of work and go off exploring with him. And our Friday adventure days are no more. Rowan really loves school though, and has settled into his routine far quicker than I have. Weekends suddenly seemed really full, with no time to do anything. By the end of September, I had reached the stage where, no matter what, we WERE going to get outside and enjoy being in nature. Beacon Fell, on the edge of the Forest of Bowland, near Preston was to be our destination. Not only is there a sculpture trail to follow, but it is also a dark skies location and I wanted to have a look around before we make our way up for a night time excursion at some point in the future.

I seem to have been so busy recently I’m just finding the time now to sit down and write about out walk in Betws-y-Coed during our recent long weekend in North Wales. The forecast for the day was sunshine and rain showers, so we decided to go for a stroll alongside the river, Afon Llugwy, at Betws-y-Coed. Having visited before, we know that parts of the walk were in woodland, so if it rained, we would be afforded a bit a shelter.

With lovely weather forecast for the weekend, we decided we would visit the Lake District once more, to bag another Wainwright with Rowan. After a bit of research using the trusty Wainwright pictorial guides and the brilliant Hillbagging website, we decided to tackle Gowbarrow Fell. The walk we had planned was slightly shorter than our previous Wainwright walk, but included more of a climb so I was expecting it to be a bit of challenge for Rowan’s little legs.

On Saturday we decided to take the dogs somewhere we could let them off the leads and let them have a big run. Rocky loves the seaside, getting his paws wet and splashing about in the surf whereas Pebble prefers mooching and sniffing around, so we chose to visit the National Trust site at Formby. That way we could take in a woodland walk and stroll down the beach at one location, and maybe spot a red squirrel in the process.